Gifton gives them the Barnsley chop

Despite his good showing against Colchester as a second half substitute, he didn't make the starting line up tonight and again had to settle for a place on the bench. Steve Cotterill made two changes to the personnel, Michael Duff being preferred to Frank Sinclair at right back and Wade Elliott returning at the expense of Kyle Lafferty.

It was a more orthodox 4-4-2 formation with Steve Jones alongside Andy Gray up front for a game that had suddenly taken on more importance because of the run of home defeats and in particular the one against Colchester.

We started brightly and put the visiting defence under some early pressure, but the nearest we got to a goal was a John McGreal header following an early corner, whilst both Micah Hyde and Jones had efforts blocked.

At the other end we were thankful to Brian Jensen for a decidedly unorthodox save after a shot had taken deflection but overall we had started well enough and Gray should probably have done better than to head wide from an excellent Elliott cross from the right.

Disaster though was soon around the corner as defensive lapses led to Barnsley going two goals in front within the space of eight minutes midway through the half. Turf Moor was shell shocked. They were poor goals to give away with Wayne Thomas at fault with the first one and then Michael Duff caught dallying.

In between the two goals, both scored by Michael McIndoe, the Barnsley keeper kept out an effort from Alan Mahon but he looked to have injured himself in shooting and within no time after the second goal he was brought off as Steve Cotterill decided to change things.

Jones took his place on the left with Gifton coming on up front alongside Andy Gray – and from that moment on the game changed and Barnsley were to face a difficult hour. He won a couple of good headers to set us going forward and from one the ball was worked out to Elliott whose shot was clearly handled but we aren't getting the decisions and our appeals for a penalty were waved away.

We weren't to be denied and in our very next attack we won a free kick, a foul on Gifton, some twenty-five yards from goal and Jon Harley curled it round the wall and just inside goalkeeper Nick Colgan's right hand post.

The crowds sensed a comeback and urged us to attack but we were stopped in our tracks by a ridiculous decision by referee Sutton who pulled play back with Jones clear to give us a free kick. He hadn't been caught out by a quick pass as he went to blow his whistle, by the time he reacted we were clear, a dreadful decision. Needless to say the free kick in our own half came to nothing but we left the field at half time to a standing ovation, and this despite still being behind.

The half time interval was extended for some time. We came out, Barnsley came out and both sides waited to restart for several minutes but there was no sign of the ref or his assistants. They finally strolled out, far too late,

We were up for it and causing them problems right from the off, we came close to an equaliser a couple of times and then even Gifton got in on the act but shot wide. At this stage I received a text from a friend suggesting our substitute had already done enough to win any man of the match vote, and within seconds of receiving it he scored his first Burnley goal since August last year.

James O'Connor, who had a superb game, got back to win the ball and set us going forward but it was down the right wing where the goal was created as Elliott beat his man and hit over a superb cross to the back post where Gifton rose to head the ball down and in.

Yes Gifton rose, and so did Turf Moor, just about everyone inside the ground. He so richly deserved it and his introduction had given us a chance. We needed to keep going at them now and try to win it, but it evened up somewhat and in fact it was Barnsley who came the closest with a free kick that rattled the underside of the bar.

Barnsley though were frustrating every fair minded football supporter with their tactics, the time wasting, particularly from goalkeeper Colgan, was appalling and like Colchester before them they had an amazing ability to go down and feign injury. I'm not so sure referee Sutton was ever aware of the time wasting.

Into the last ten minutes and we needed one last push at them to try and get all three points, and that's exactly what we did. With the clock running down we got ourselves in front when Gifton got to a ball from Micah Hyde and finished via the bar, and he still wasn't finished.

With two minutes of normal time remaining he got to a mis-hit Micah shot and turned it in for his first ever Football League hat trick. It just left time for Steve Cotterill to substitute him in stoppage time to allow him one of the most richly deserved standing ovations at Burnley for a long, long time.

There were some good individual performances and besides Gifton I really do want to single out both Wade Elliott and James O'Connor, both of whom had outstanding games.

So a 4-2 win, on a proper Turf Moor football night that had passion, both on and off the field, excitement and an amazing comeback. It's the first time we've been two goals behind and gone on to win since we beat Macclesfield 4-3 in March 1999, and goodness knows when we last won by two clear goals having been two down, although I do know we did it against double winning Spurs in 1961.

What a difference a few days make, there were no long faces coming away from the ground tonight, no worried brows, just sheer delight. We've shown what we can do, now we've just got to keep on doing it.

The teams were;

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Michael Duff, Wayne Thomas, John McGreal, Jon Harley, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor, Micah Hyde, Alan Mahon (Gifton Noel-Williams 34, Kyle Lafferty 90), Andy Gray, Steve Jones (Chris McCann 85). Subs not used: Frank Sinclair, Stephen Foster.

Barnsley: Nick Colgan, Bobby Hassell, Antony Kay, Paul Reid, Robbie Williams, Martin Devaney, Sam Togwell, Brian Howard, Michael McIndoe, Paul Hayes, Mark Richards (Tommy Wright 71). Subs not used: Vito Mannone, Paul Heckingbottom, Colin Healy, Nicky Wroe.

Referee: Gary Sutton (Lincoln).

Attendance: 10,304.

Footnote: I've just been reminded of a week in October 1969 when we were behind 2-0 at home on both Saturdays against Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday and went on to win both games 4-2. Maybe this wasn't the last time we did it, but I'm sure it was the last time we did it twice in a week.